25 OPMers get the tee shirt

Isabelle and Mike are PMD Pro trainers from our partner RedR UK who recently delivered PMD Pro 1 course for Oxford Policy Management Ltd, in Oxford (England).
After taking the course, the group wrote a short piece about it for their internal newsletter. Check out what they said about it:

“At the end of April, around 25 OPMers attended a bespoke three-day interactive project management course based on the PMD Pro 1 Project Management for International Development Professionals. As the title suggests, PMD Pro 1 is a (certified) project management course specifically design for people working in the International Development sector.

PMD Pro 1 Level 1 is an introductory course during which participants develop an understanding of the principles and terminology of project management – most importantly – within the context of international development projects. The course covers the basic concepts, terminology and tools of project management used by development professionals. In our case, we tailored the course to align with the OPM style of work.

Level 1 is part of a three-level certification sequence that RedR UK is authorised to deliver through their registration with “LINGOs”: a consortium of over 55 international development, humanitarian relief, conservation and health organisations. Run in-house at OPM, the course was facilitated by two excellent trainers from RedR UK: Mike Gonzalez and Isabelle Robinson. Both are experienced trainer-facilitators who have many years of experience of the design and delivery of projects in humanitarian and development situations, as well a fantastic knowledge of the cross-cutting issues we concern ourselves with.

Most importantly it was good fun. In the three days, we were walked through the different stages of the project cycle, played a few fun games along the way and even actively project-managed our very own three-day project. If you were in the Oxford office, you may have tripped over small groups of earnest-looking folks, heads-down-and-tails-up, in various breakout sessions taking-up any unoccupied corner of the office (thanks for your patience, by the way).

The material covered gives participants a much broader picture of development management than the usual technocratic project management; it covered aspects right from the project identification and design stage through to closure and lights off.

We found the participants who benefited the most are those still quite new to development or who have quite specific roles at the early stage of their careers; it is a useful introduction to the wide-world of development. We were lucky to have a couple of our more experience OPMers in the room, who were able to give us the benefit of their knowledge and ideas as to how we actually apply the learning in OPM.

Some participants were surprised by the tools PMD Pro had to offer and have asked about those already used by OPM. We have a growing resource of OPM sample tools being collated for your reference, adaption or use. They are on our Imo site, so come and take a look. Our library of resources is growing every day and we are busy continuously improving its structure and usability (is that a word?) thanks to Andrea’s advice and expertise!!

If you can’t find what you want or if you need help, guidance or even just a sanity check at any stage of the project cycle, the feel free to come and speak to us. We are happy to help 🙂

Last but certainly not least, a very special thank you from all the participants, to Smaranda Predescu and Elisabetta Lichy for driving this forward and handling all arrangements to make the training happen. Oh, and thanks to Amy for the home-baked cookies.

If you are interested to learn more about PMD Pro and what it has to offer, you may refer to the course guide here.

Shiva and the PMU Team

Some of the participants of the PMD Pro 1 course with trainers Mike and Isabelle (centre, front). Thanks to Harry for remembering to take a photo!”

It is fantastic to read cases from our partners like that!
How about sharing your story with us too? Send us an e-mail and we’ll share it for the Project Managers world!